This section provides an introduction for those who are not skilled in the art and incorporates other citations by reference. It is not an admission regarding prior art.
In the late 1980's several application programs were developed to allow groups of people to work together by sharing information. These applications are referred to as GroupWare. GroupWare products run on a mainframe computer or on a network so that users can communicate in real time. Most GroupWare products provide one or more of the following functions:
shared calendaring--view another's electronic calendar and possibly schedule meetings on anothers calendar;
electronic mail--e.g. send messages to another's electronic mailbox even when the other person is not signed on;
shared word processing--e.g. allow multiple users to read and edit the same documents possibly simultaneously;
shared document control--e.g. automatically keep track of who, when and what changes are made to a document and allow previous versions to be compared to a current version;
shared data base management--e.g. allow multiple users to read and even write to the same data base; and
group decision support--e.g. allow a group of users to communicate anonymously about some question and automatically tally votes to reach consensus.
For example, LotusNotes.RTM. (from Lotus, Inc.) provides shared calendaring, word processing of shared files, and electronic mail in a computer network; Group System V.TM. (from Ventana Corporation of MD) and TeamKit.RTM. (from IBM Corporation) offer anonymous email and a good email composing editor, and support group decision making by automatically tabulating anonymous voting.
Japanese patent JP 04-293157 describes a GroupWare application.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) developed the process safety management (PSM) standard (1910.119). The objective of PSM is to prevent the undesired release of hazardous chemicals especially into locations which could expose employees and others to serious hazards. PSM is the proactive identification, evaluation, and mitigation or elimination of chemical hazards that could occur as a result of failures in design, procedures, or equipment of a process. Effective PSM requires a systematic approach to analyzing the entire process including: process design, process technology, operational and maintenance activities and procedures, non-routine activities and procedures, emergency preparedness plans and procedures, training programs and other elements which impact the process.
PSM targets highly hazardous chemicals that posses toxic, reactive, flammable or explosive properties which could potentially lead to a catastrophic incident. These substances are listed in paragraph A.1 of the PSM standard. The PSM standard requires an organization to develop a thorough, orderly, systematic approach for identifying, evaluating, and controlling processes involving these highly hazardous chemicals including the following specific requirements.
1. Set priorities and conduct analysis according to required schedules.
2. Use an appropriate methodology to determine and evaluate process hazards.
3. Address process hazards, previous incidents with catastrophic potential, engineering and administrative controls applicable to the factors, consequences of failure of controls, facility siting, human factors and a qualitative evaluation of possible safety and health effects of failure of controls on employees.
4. Perform process hazard assessment (PHA) by a team with expertise in engineering and process operations, the process being evaluated, and the PHA methodology used.
5. Establish a system to promptly address findings and recommendations, assure recommendations are documented and resolved, develop a written schedule for completing actions, communicate actions to operating, maintenance and other employees, and to perform and document the actions taken.
6. Update and reevaluate PHAs at least every five years.
7. Retain PHAs and updates for the life of the process.
PSM is a difficult and time-consuming process for an organization to implement. The typical approach is to assign individuals to ensure that the requirements of each section of the PSM standard are met, and teams of people to perform the PHA. The individuals become familiar with the standard, organize the work, structure the teams and assure education of the teams. The teams must be trained to perform the analysis. The teams need access and understanding of the operating procedures, emergency plans, chemical hazards and precautions, process chemistry, safe upper and lower limits of process variables, equipment safety systems, etc. All these documents must be controlled to assure that all the participants are working with the same version of the documentation. Members of the teams create parts of the documents which must be reviewed, commented on, revised and reviewed again until consensus is reached. OSHA investigators can come in at any time to ensure that the organization is in compliance with the PSM standard.
The above citations are hereby incorporated by reference.